WARNING: Antacids pose unique dangers for seniors

Heartburn, acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), peptic ulcer disease and other acid-related conditions are extremely common, and as a result acid-reducing drugs like Zantac, Pepcid, Prevacid and Nexium are among the most widely prescribed medications in the world.

Unfortunately, the drugs are so common that they’re handed out for countless cases of mild indigestion, heartburn and even for “preventive” measures. But these drugs are not only vastly overused … they’re very dangerous as well and in many cases will only make the underlying problem worse.

Acid-reducers commonly used by seniors

If you have seen a conventional physician for any of the above complaints, there’s a strong likelihood that you’ve been offered an acid-reducing drug as a solution. Likewise, if you’ve been in the hospital recently, you may have even been given the drugs as a solely “preventive” measure.

In one study of 213 patients admitted to the University of Michigan Hospital, only 29 percent were taking acid-reducing drugs before they entered the hospital, but this rose to 70 percent upon admission. Further, half continued taking the drugs unnecessarily after they went home.

This is a serious problem, especially for seniors who are not only at an increased risk of the drugs’ side effects, but who may take the drugs for far longer than they should.

One Canadian study even found that use of the acid-reducing proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) rose 60 percent among seniors from 2001 to 2008, while also showing that an increasing number of the elderly were using the drugs for longer periods of time.

It’s not uncommon for seniors to remain on acid-reducing drugs for up to 15 years at a time, which could have devastating health consequences.

Why acid-reducing drugs are dangerous

It’s a two-fold problem beginning with the fact that proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are drugs that VERY effectively block your stomach’s ability to produce acid.

While that may sound like a good thing, in most cases it is the absolute worst approach possible for problems like heartburn and acid reflux, as typically with these conditions your stomach is producing too little stomach acid.

So taking these drugs will only WORSEN your condition.

According to Mitchell Katz, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health who wrote an editorial on this topic, PPIs are only warranted for the treatment of:

Severe acid reflux, where an endoscopy has confirmed that your esophagus is damaged

Pneumonia

Bone loss

Hip fractures

PPIs were never intended for people with heartburn, and according to Katz, “about 60 to 70 percent of people taking these drugs have mild heartburn and shouldn’t be on them.”

However, I believe the number may be even higher than that, because there are over 16,000 articles supporting the fact that suppressing stomach acid does NOT treat Helicobacter pylori infection, which Katz included above.

One of the explanations for this is that when you suppress the amount of acid in your stomach, you decrease your body’s ability to kill the helicobacter bacteria. So it actually makes your condition worse and perpetuates the problem.

Antacids have serious side effects

PPIs are also touted as being completely safe, when in reality they carry steep risks. One of the primary concerns is that reducing acid in your stomach diminishes your primary defense mechanism for food-borne infections, which will increase your risk of food poisoning and also your risk of infection with Clostridium difficile, a harmful intestinal bacteria that is common in the elderly.

PPIs also increase the risk of other ailments that seniors are already at an increased risk for, making their risks exponentially higher:

The risk of a bone fracture has been estimated to be over 40 percent higher in patients who use these drugs long-term, which again applies to many seniors.

Additionally, if you fail to digest and absorb your food properly, which can occur if you suppress your stomach acid, you will not only increase your risk of stomach atrophy but also nearly every other chronic degenerative disease.

The drugs also lead to both tolerance and dependence on them, so unfortunately you can’t stop taking them without suffering repercussions, which may be even worse than your original symptoms.

If you’re already taking a PPI, you’ll want to get on a lower dose than you’re on now, and then gradually decrease your dose even further. Once you get down to the lowest dose of the proton pump inhibitor, you can start substituting with an over-the-counter H2 blocker like Tagamet, Cimetidine, Zantac, or Raniditine.

Then gradually wean off the H2 blocker over the next several weeks while implementing the lifestyle strategies addressed below.

Safe, natural alternatives for heartburn, acid reflux

Heartburn, acid reflux and GERD are examples of painful conditions that can be relieved in the majority of cases by making relatively simple lifestyle changes, including:

Consume enough probiotics:

This will help balance your bowel flora, which can help eliminate helicobacter bacteria naturally. It will also aid in proper digestion and assimilation of your food.

Ideally, you’ll want to get your probiotics from fermented foods. One of my favorites is natto, but there are many other food products that are excellent choices for natural probiotics, such as fermented vegetables and kefir, a fermented milk drink made from RAW milk.

Another option is taking a high-quality probiotic supplement. The one I use personally contains the Bacillus Coagulans strain, which has been proven highly effective.

Eliminate food triggers:

Food allergies can be a problem, so you’ll want to completely eliminate items such as caffeine, alcohol, and all nicotine products.

Increase your body’s natural stomach acid:

Like I said earlier, heartburn/GERD is not caused by too much acid in your stomach — it’s usually a problem with too little acid. One of the simplest strategies to encourage your body to make sufficient amounts of hydrochloric acid (stomach acid) is to consume enough of the raw material.

One of the most basic food items that many people neglect is a high-quality sea salt (unprocessed salt), such as Himalayan salt. Not only will it provide you with the chloride your body needs to make hydrochloric acid, it also contains over 80 trace minerals your body needs to perform optimally, biochemically.

Take a hydrochloric acid supplement:

Another option is to take a betaine hydrochloric supplement, which is available in health food stores without prescription. You’ll want to take as many as you need to get the slightest burning sensation and then decrease by one capsule.

This will help your body to better digest your food, and will also help kill helicobacter and normalize your symptoms.

Modify your diet:

Eating large amounts of processed foods and sugars is a surefire way to exacerbate acid GERD, as it will upset the bacterial balance in your stomach and intestine.

Instead, you’ll want to eat a lot of vegetables, and high quality, organic, biodynamic, and locally grown foods.

Optimize your vitamin D:

As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, vitamin D is essential, and it’s essential for these conditions as well because there’s likely an infectious component causing the problem.

Once your vitamin D levels are optimized, you’re also going to optimize your production of 200 antimicrobial peptides that will help your body eradicate any infections that shouldn’t be there.

You’ll want to make sure your vitamin D level is about 60 ng/ml. You can increase your vitamin D levels through appropriate amounts of sun exposure, the use of a safe tanning bed, or, if neither of those are available, an oral vitamin D3 supplement.

New York Times bestselling author Dr. Mercola graduated from the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1982. And while osteopaths or D.O.s are licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery just like medical doctors (M.D.s), they bring something extra to the practice of medicine.

Osteopathic physicians practice a "whole person" approach to medicine, treating the entire person — rather than just the symptoms. Focusing on preventive health care, D.O.s help patients develop attitudes and lifestyles that don't just fight illness, but help prevent it too.

Dr. Mercola is passionate about natural medicine and strongly believes that the current medical system is largely manipulated and controlled by large corporations whose primary focus is profit. His website, Mercola.com, which started as a small hobby interest in 1997, has now grown to today’s number one natural health website educating and empowering millions to take back the control over their own health.

Reader Interactions

Ready to jump start your diet… starting RIGHT NOW?

Follow these eight fool-proof tips to help you reach your weight loss goals! The Best part is... these tips are cheap -- OR FREE! -- and you can do them right at home. As an added bonus I'll also share with you 5 natural supplements to shed stubborn belly fat... fast!

Please let us know what you think about this article. All comments will be moderated before being posted publicly.

Comments

Having stumbled upon the cause of my lifelong stomach problems when I went on a diet (very low carbs) to lose weight. After 1 week of eating no grains of any kind and very few vegetables that weren’t dark green leafy ones, or French style greenbeans, broccoli, cabbage, kale, asparagus, etc. I suddenly realized my constant heartburn, indigestion, bloating, flatulence and frequent nausea was gone. I also had peptic ulcer pain 4 to 5 times per year. Realizing that it had to something that I was eating or drinking at every meal
I suspected that it was wheat or milk. I went off the diet after 6 weeks, by which time I was thinking that maybe it
was something in the bleaching process, not in the wheat itself, that caused my problems. I found this to be true. Getting rid of bleached flour in my diet removed most of my problems, but I also found I could not drink sweet milk without
a stomach upset and sharp pains in my wrists.

Years later when I was researching PUD (Peptic Ulcler Disease)
for a term paper, and relying heavily upon Gastrointestinal
Journals for Information, I learned that PUD wasn’t a problem
until it cropped up in the upper-socioeconomic group, several years later moved on into the middle-socioeconomic group and finally invaded the lower socio-economic group several years after invading the middle group. My AHA! moment said
it had to be something changed in the food chain and remembering that bleached flour was the major cause of my own GI problems and disappeared after I eliminated it, I searched for information on when white (bleached) flour first appeared. This was in the late 70’s, so I forget the exact dates when they started bleaching wheat flour, but PUD hit the first group somewhere between 11 & 15 years after it first began and only the upper socioeconomic group could affort the expensive stuff.

Information was also available on when it became cheap enough that the middle-socioeconomic group could afford it and also gave the date that someone in Minnesota came up with a bleaching process that made it cheap enough that everyone could afford it. Interestingly enough, PUD moved into the middle and lower- socioeconomic group the same number of years after they could afford the bleached flour, as it had in the upper-socioeconomic group.

I cannot tell you what the mechanism is but I suspect that whatever chemical/s is used in the bleaching process interferes with the stomach’s ability to produce hydrochloric
acid to digest food. I suspect that those same chemicals also
lets the H Pylori bacteria that is now blamed for causing
PUD survive. I am only thankful that I discovered the cause
of my stomach problems years before someone discovered H Pylori (for which I was never treated) and didn’t have to wait for their combatting medicine to appear on the market. I truly
love my hot salsa, Louisana Hot Sauce and other things that I used to blame my problems on. They give me no problems as long as I avoid bleached flour.

My husband has been using OTC heartburn remedies such as Tums for most of his adult life. Recently I read in “The Peoples’ Pharmacy” about eating a few (the article said 3) almonds after a meal to prevent heartburn. My husband began eating 3-6 raw almonds after most meals and has needed Tums only a few times (when he was away from home or forgot to eat his almonds) since he began this routine. Almonds contain valuable vegetable fats, vitamins and fiber and have no side effects I’m aware of (unless you have tree-nut allergies). I’ve been using them too, especially after an unusually rich or spicy meal, with excellent results; the occasional bout of GER which has wakened me several times in the last few months has apparently gone.

Glad to see that the mass-marketing of consumer remedies for created conditions is being denounced. For those that have not enjoyed basic biology as part of their basic public education or have been lulled into the stupor of forgetfulness by the advertising campaigns of the giant pharma-industry- please take notice and wake up. This article is very good in its expansion of background information within the scope of focus- specifically, Seniors. And especially calling into question the widespread abuse of prescribing drugs originally designed as specific remedies for specific conditions for conditions that are not directly caused by those specific conditions. Really- have medical practitioners forgotten their basic anatomy/biology and abandoned common sense? And I would like to see this article expanded to include other factors that the author espouses- the whole body/behavior aspects of life too!

I am not a doctor- but I am an aware individual- and I have been living in my body for 60 years and listening to it as long as I can remember. And I practice expanding awareness- reading and researching, and even encouraging others in pursuing wider thought and independent thinking whenever possible- though I do admit, that sometimes to their irritation, more than they want to hear!

So, I offer the following (anecdotal and reasoned-not research tested) thoughts-

1) This article should not be limited to just seniors- the stresses of modern youth and mid-life/ mid-career folks ensure an even larger market share of misrepresentation in advertising and subsequent misuse by these age groups.

2) The stomach is a pouch shaped flexible muscle with an entrance valve and an exit valve- these valves are designed as one-way-only sphincters- and is only normally about the same size as 2 or 3 of your closed fists held face to face together. So, if you are stuffing yourself rigid (think super-sized meals and endless buffets) with a greater volume of food intake than that fist measuring size- expect tremendous pressure on that upper valve that keeps stomach acid from pushing back up your esophagus and makes you feel like you are have stabbing pains and heart-attacks! So- common sense- stop eating so much! If you are still hungry- eat more smaller meals or snacks!

Also- the normal time required for your stomach to breakdown its contents and push it on into your bowel plumbing should only be a couple to three to four hours- with the normal amount of acid that your stomach was designed to produce. If you over-stuff it, your stomach takes much longer to process all that mass- and it begins to rot and ferment and out-gas from the decomposition- building gas pressure from all kinds of acidic and corrosive gases, putting even more pressure on that upper valve and your body compensates by inducing belching pushing that blisteringly acidic cocktail of gases and now liquified content up your esophagus again! And even worse- your stomach may not/ cannot produce enough acid to properly do its digestive part, and you get more rotting food stuck in your stomach for hours!

3) Basic chemistry lesson- if you take one volume of full strength acid- say the normal amount of hydrochloric acid in your stomach- and then you add a Big-Gulp sized serving of other liquid- you will massively dilute the strength of the acid and therefore substantially reduce its ability to digest the stomach contents- and worse- add more volume to an already overstuffed condition! So, it will then take even longer to digest the food- again, rot sets in, etc…. So again, common sense dictates that you should drink only a size appropriate serving- say 8-12 ounces total of wine/water/iced tea with your meal- remember when all standard dinner glasses were that sized? So, again, we are not producing sufficient acid or strong enough acid to digest the contents of the stomach.

4) About all that stuff about gluten and flours and possible allergic type reactions- there is long established documentation of a genetic condition of sensitivity to gluten- it is rare, not very common. I think that the problem for everyone else is pretty simple- the advent of high volume commercial baking has introduced this problem. The old-fashioned way of rising bread/ bakery products was to use simple yeasts and let the little beasties do their job- for 12 hours! In that 12 hours, the yeast actually consumes/breaks down the bulk, if not all, of the glutens/sugars, producing CO2 as the rising agent- think sourdough breads. The modern process of high volume bakery production uses the technique of using fast acting yeast (actually taking only 5-15 minutes) to convert the sugars to CO2 but which does not have sufficient time to consume/breakdown much, if any, of the gluten. Hence, the rise in gluten sensitivity and the rise in false mass marketing hysteria convincing the consumer that there is a problem that Their company in Their supposed great sensitivity to consumers’ health and well-being is eliminating- a problem that They created in the first place! Please understand that I am not denigrating anyone’s personally tested sensitivity, merely reflecting on the created apprehension for those that are not awake or thinking.

SO, WE NEED TO TAKE A CHEMICAL/PERSCRIPTION AT HIGH COST, TO REDUCE OR ELIMINATE THE ALREADY INSUFFICIENT AMOUNT OF NATURALLY PRODUCED STOMACH ACID THAT ISN’T WORKING ALREADY?
REALLY? REALLY! REALLY.

How much money could the privately insured public , Medicare/Medicaid users and taxpayers save in costs that are distributed across the whole taxpaying society by not misprescribing and misusing these drugs?